Friday, May 09, 2008

Pesticide Management at Home

Everyone knows that pesticide poses problem to the society at large; but yet, some of us just don't plain care. All of us should know that proper cleaning of produces should be done wholeheartedly to prevent excess residues of pesticides to accumulate in our body. detoxification therapy is centred around this idea, where accumulated toxins get detoxified. According to Doctor Leon Chaitow, detoxification therapy is likened to a little nudge to our body, where normally it will perform neutralisation of toxins naturally and automatically.

For everyone's convenience sake, I have listed a few food that are rich in contaminants. Bear in mind that this data is procured from the United States and this might not be representative of all data in the whole wide world. I am not even sure will this data be applicable to food imported from the states.

Here is the list:

Test Results: Complete Data Set

Rank (worst to best)

Commodity

Combined Score

Percentage of Samples Tested with Detectable Pesticides

Percentage of Samples With Two or More Pesticides

Average Number of Pesticides Found on a Sample

Average Amount (in ppm*) of All Pesticides Found

Maximum Number of Pesticides Found on a Single Sample

Number of Pesticides Found on the Commodity in Total

1

Peaches

100

96.6%

86.6%

3.1

1.134

9

42

2

Apples

96

93.6%

82.3%

2.8

0.894

9

50

3

Sweet Bell Peppers

86

81.5%

62.2%

2.4

0.138

11

64

4

Celery

85

94.1%

79.8%

3.0

0.413

9

30

5

Nectarines

84

97.3%

85.3%

3.0

0.576

7

26

6

Strawberries

83

92.3%

69.2%

2.3

0.799

8

38

7

Cherries

75

91.4%

75.8%

2.8

0.290

7

25

8

Lettuce

69

68.2%

44.2%

1.7

0.142

9

57

9

Grapes - Imported

68

84.2%

53.2%

1.8

0.284

8

37

10

Pears

65

86.2%

45.7%

1.6

0.586

6

33

11

Spinach

60

70.0%

31.2%

1.1

1.240

6

24

12

Potatoes

58

81.0%

18.0%

1.0

1.655

4

18

13

Carrots

57

81.7%

48.3%

1.6

0.046

6

31

14

Green Beans

55

67.6%

42.0%

1.4

0.199

6

35

15

Hot Peppers

53

55.0%

27.5%

1.0

0.290

6

51

16

Cucumbers

52

72.5%

31.7%

1.2

0.057

6

40

17

Raspberries

47

47.9%

23.3%

0.9

0.906

6

21

18

Plums

46

74.0%

27.1%

1.1

0.666

4

15

19

Oranges

46

85.1%

34.6%

1.3

0.100

4

18

20

Grapes - Domestic

46

60.5%

23.4%

0.9

0.104

7

31

21

Cauliflower

39

84.6%

14.6%

1.0

0.004

5

15

22

Tangerines

38

66.7%

33.3%

1.2

0.375

3

4

23

Mushrooms

37

60.2%

22.3%

0.9

0.158

5

16

24

Cantaloupe

34

53.3%

19.4%

0.8

0.026

4

25

25

Lemon

31

55.6%

10.0%

0.7

0.188

5

10

26

Honeydew Melon

31

59.2%

14.2%

0.8

0.012

4

16

27

Grapefruit

31

62.9%

15.2%

0.8

0.056

4

9

28

Winter Squash

31

41.3%

11.6%

0.6

0.017

5

26

29

Tomatoes

30

46.9%

13.5%

0.6

0.029

5

16

30

Sweet Potatoes

30

58.4%

10.0%

0.7

0.198

3

17

31

Watermelons

25

38.5%

13.2%

0.6

0.021

4

13

32

Blueberries

24

27.5%

10.0%

0.4

0.327

4

11

33

Papaya

21

23.5%

5.0%

0.3

0.053

4

19

34

Eggplant

19

23.4%

6.9%

0.3

0.013

4

15

35

Broccoli

18

28.1%

3.2%

0.3

0.004

3

19

36

Cabbage

17

17.9%

4.8%

0.2

0.121

3

18

37

Bananas

16

41.7%

2.0%

0.4

0.029

2

7

38

Kiwi

14

15.3%

3.4%

0.2

0.160

3

8

39

Asparagus

11

6.7%

0.6%

0.1

0.026

2

19

40

Sweet Peas - Frozen

11

22.9%

2.3%

0.3

0.010

2

5

41

Mango

9

7.1%

0.5%

0.1

0.057

2

13

42

Pineapples

7

7.7%

0.6%

0.1

0.002

2

7

43

Sweet Corn - Frozen

2

3.8%

0.0%

0.0

0.005

1

3

44

Avocado

1

1.4%

0.0%

0.0

0.001

1

2

45

Onions

1

0.2%

0.0%

0.0

0.000

1

2

Note: We ranked a total of 44 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

Those produces used in the test were prepared in a standard manner i.e. washed, peeled, cored etc. as they are prepared before we ate them. Latest FDA standard dictates that a large amount of the produces be used for sampling so the data procured here is not just estimation, this is real hard cold data (for the States).

The problem we have here is this; the twelve most contaminated food are eerily common and consumed almost routinely. What options do we have here then? Surely all of you have heard of detoxification therapy (this is the best bet) but is this a long run to exhaust our body (i.e, consuming toxic to burden our liver, kidney etc.)? How about organic food? That is another best bet but sometimes, how organic is ORGANIC food? Some of them don't even pass tests and their certificates are counterfeited. This has appeared a number of times in the news and has cause quite an uproar in the community.

So, buy organics that you have confirmed its authenticity. Do not buy food arbitrarily without any verification on the organic certification. Check with your local authority to ensure this.

The next best thing to do is to clean them thoroughly. What I feel as a best tool is to wash them thoroughly with a teaspoon of sea salt (richer in ionic content) and a tablespoon of vinegar (half of a lemon might be more appropriate) added to a Basin of water. This will remove most of those chemical residues in the produce. Peel apples, melons, and cucumbers even tough the skin is supposedly to be good for all of us. The amount of pesticides just does not worth it. If you want to eat those peels, try buying organic produces that you have verified.

Good News

Then those produces least contaminated (consistently clean) are:

12 LEAST Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

Asparagus

Avocados

Bananas

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Corn (sweet)

Kiwi

Mangos

Onions

Papaya

Pineapples

Peas (sweet)

So maybe it is better for us to eat food from the LEAST contaminated group than the MOST contaminated group. This is, no doubt, common sense but some of us just prefer the food in the MOST list (just because of habit?). It is time to rethink our food intake...

The Apothecarist's Solution

However, if you are still unconvinced and wanted something that will work well to rid yourself of pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, and slow suicides, our apothecarist has sourced in a reliable but yet economical solution. It is our apothecarist's very own brand: Mayura Apothecary VegeFruit Wash. This enzyme-based fruit wash will help you to remove unwanted additives while remaining gentle to your hands and vegetables as well as fruits.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Your chart breakdown on all of this is phenomenal....thank you. This gives greater clarity to the public and readers in genral as the what types of insecticides sprayed on food. Your providing the actual graphs is wonderful!Please continue providing this type of information. It's greatly appreciated in this day & agge where the producers are not entitled to provide the consumer with what's being put on their food!

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A traditionalist though he did not know Chinese well. A Han Chinese himself, he is striving to restore the glorious past of his ancestors. In his spare time however, he likes to curl up in bed sleeping until the bed is tired of him and trying to kick him out via disembodied springs...